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Saudi Execution of Sri Lankan Maid Exposes Vulnerability of Foreign Workers

The execution of a Sri Lankan maid, who was charged as a minor with killing a 4-month-old Saudi baby, has drawn attention to the plight of foreign workers in the kingdom, reports Caryle Murphy.
A demonstrator holds an image of Rizana Nafeek, jailed in Saudi Arabia on charges of murdering a four-month-old baby who was in her care, during a protest demanding her release in front of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Colombo July 8, 2011. Nafeek, arrested in May 2005, is currently facing execution by beheading for the crime; a charge which she has denied. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte (SRI LANKA - Tags: CRIME LAW POLITICS)

Underscoring the precarious plight of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi government Wednesday (Jan. 8) executed a young Sri Lankan housemaid convicted of killing an infant in her care, following what human rights groups have called a flawed trial.

Despite high-level clemency pleas from the Sri Lankan government, Rizana Nafeek, who was 17 at the time of the baby boy’s death in 2005, was executed in Dawadmi, a small town outside Riyadh where she’d been incarcerated for several years, according to a statement by the Saudi Interior Ministry. Saudi executions are usually by beheading.

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